By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
On Tuesday the Joint Committee of Administrative Rules (JCAR) rejected Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s attempt to re-issue his emergency school mask mandate. The governor’s emergency executive order on school masking expired on Sunday, Feb. 13 and the administration immediately refiled the rule on Monday, Feb. 14.
However, JCAR, the legislature’s review board that approves administrative rules created by state agencies, voted 9-0-2 to block the reimplementation of the governor’s rule. The committee, made up of six Republicans and six Democrats, needed eight votes to strike down the rule.
As of right now, there is no statewide school mask mandate in Illinois. The JCAR ruling also impacts the state’s school vaccination and testing mandates.
The ruling came during Pritzker’s latest attempt to reimpose and reinforce his mask mandate. The governor’s emergency executive orders have to be renewed periodically.
The mask mandate has been in contention since Feb. 4, when a court ruling by Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grischow declared the mandate was authorized illegally. The suit was initially brought by more than 700 parents in 145 school districts across the state.
“I think it fair to say the committee was uncomfortable with extending an emergency rule that has been invalidated by a court,” JCAR member Sen. Bill Cunningham (D) said.
“Locally elected school boards who are accountable to parents and know best for their districts, along with their local health department experts, should be allowed to make decisions on COVID mitigations that fit their communities best. With JCAR’s bipartisan ruling today, there is no statewide mask mandate in effect for schools, and the decision now belongs with the local school districts,” said JCAR member Rep. Keith Wheeler (R).
Importantly, this is not the final word on the school mask mandate. The Democratic members of JCAR noted that if an Illinois appellate court strikes down Judge Grischow’s ruling, then JCAR could end up re-voting in favor of the governor’s rule and end up re-imposing school masks statewide.
Vote of the Members of the Joint Committee On Administrative Rules
- Representative Keith R. Wheeler (R) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Senator John F. Curran (R) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Senator Donald P. Dewitte (R) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Senator Sue Rezin (R) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Representative Tom Demmer (R) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Representative Steven Reick (R) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Representative Mike Halpin (D) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Representative Frances Ann Hurley (D) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Representative Curtis J. Tarver, II (D) – Voted Affirmatively to Block
- Senator Antonio Muñoz (D) – Voted Present
- Senator Bill Cunningham (D) – Voted Present
- Senator Kimberly A. Lightford (D) – Did Not Attend
Read more from Wirepoints on masks and Illinois’ mandates:
- The Mask Is Off: Illinois Has No Science Behind Its School Masking Mandate
- Notes from the front: Illinois parents, students continue to protest school mask mandates
- Two facts parents should know as the outrage over school mask mandates heats up
- School Masks: What’s Behind Gov. Pritzker’s Blind Obstinance?
- Politics Getting Bad For Those Using Children As Human Covid Shields
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
This article’s photo of a child joyfully removing her mask is misleading. I live in Ohio and we haven’t had a statewide mask mandate since last May, but most school districts here still force masks on kids. It remains a losing battle for mask choice in Ohio, even though two mask-mandate school board members were overwhelmingly voted out of office in November, in my local district. We need universal school choice. Defund public schools and give parents and taxpayers their money back, so that we can all arrange for our own educational services that answer only to customers, not to… Read more »
Science is a way of thinking, theorizing then proving, exploring, questioning, experimenting, revising, evolving. It’s not a god given source of absolute truth. At any point in time the scientific method can disprove a previous proof. This includes political science, but only when a consensus of free men and women are governing their elected representatives. The political science can no longer hold up the mandates, its proofs are crumbling. Next week the CDC will probably end their mask mandate. Politicians like Fauci, I no longer consider him a scientist, will suddenly not want masks, because the “science” they’ve latched onto… Read more »
Does “Present” mean I agree but don’t want to show it publicly?
It means I’m afraid to take a stand for fear of upsetting voters on either side of the issue.
No, it means “I’m too big of a wimp to stand up to the Fuhrer Gov. JB Pritzker, but don’t want to piss off my voters, so I’ll abstain” WUSSES!!!!
Present means the legislator was present during the vote but chose not to vote for or against the measure.
This’ll be interesting as regards the teacher’s unions. Seem’s like Grischow’s ruling goes in two directions. Only local health departments can implement mask mandates, but at the same time (if I understand this all correctly) teacher’s union’s collective bargaining contracts (which require student masking-n-quaranting) will continue to be enforced. Even if the appellate court upholds Grischow’s ruling, it seems that the mask-n-shots-n-quarantine teacher’s union contracts would remain in effect. Not that I think that there’s a snowball’s chance on a hot August sidewalk of an Illinois appellate court bucking liberal/progressive Illinois Democratic party orthodoxy. I suspect that Pritzker, personally, couldn’t… Read more »
But those teacher contracts have to be tied to some kind of metric for mask continuance or decision of the local health board.
“Not that I think that there’s a snowball’s chance on a hot August sidewalk of an Illinois appellate court bucking liberal/progressive Illinois Democratic party orthodoxy.” 99% of the time, this is true. However, this time, things might truly be different. The 4th District is, I believe, almost entirely Republican. IIRC there hasn’t been a Republican elected to the Appellate court here in decades. The legislature decided this was a problem and in the middle of the night, passed a map that completely redrew the 4th District, adding 22 counties that were previously within the 2nd or 3rd districts, including counties… Read more »
Can’t wait to hear Pritzker’s response on this one it outta be a goody.
What? Some legislators actually did the right thing? Hard to believe from this group of sheep who have kow towed to leadership and this Gov for two years. And the children finally are free.
It’s not the right thing, it’s the political thing. JB’s political fortunes have changed with one TRO pointing out that he for nearly two years engaged in a tyranny and the voters realize the emperor has no clothes. That TRO order really changed everything.
The emperor hasn’t had clothes for about 20 months. In the beginning they didn’t know what they were dealing with, so he gets some credit, but since then, nada!
Cunningham voted an end to our health care rights and inserted himself between us and our Dr. He needs to be voted out.
Robert Kintner
Your “health care rights” include muzzling children for 2 years?
Huh? Cunningham voted present. Also nobody lost their right to wear a mask. You could even freely wear a hazmat suit, your right.
Let’s flip Cunningham’s vote to no. Final score: 9-1-1. Outcome is still the same. You’re overreacting. And you haven’t lost your right to wear a mask, though they don’t work. It only took 2 years for some legislators to challenge these ridiculous executive orders. Finally!